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Cher turns back time hosting new TCM movie showcase

A longtime fan of vintage movies, Cher kicks off a new film showcase on Turner Classic Movies as the first host of Friday Night Spotlight. The focus: the evolving roles of women from the 1930s to the 1950s.

The singer/actress chose 17 films that illustrate the evolving roles of women from the late 1930s to the early 1950s

As a child watching '30s film musicals Top Hat, Roberta and The Gay Divorcee, Cher barely noticed the dapper dancer in a tailcoat and white spats.

"I love the old Fred Astaire films but the truth is I never watched him very much," Cher says. "I was always so fascinated by Ginger Rogers. He was like an appendage."

Feeding her passion for old movies, Cher kicks off a new film showcase tonight on Turner Classic Movies as the first host of Friday Night Spotlight.

The singer/actress, who's won an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and three Golden Globes, inaugurates the franchise with the month-long A Woman's World: The Defining Era of Women in Film, a collection of 17 films she chose to depict the evolving roles of women from the late 1930s to the early 1950s.

In coming months, Friday Night Spotlight will feature a celebrity or expert who will showcase films with a specific themes.

In Friday's opening segment, Cher and TCM host Robert Osborne will screen films focusing on motherhood, beginning with 1945's Mildred Pierce starring Joan Crawford. Subsequent Fridays this month will look at the war effort and life on the home front (April 12), working women (April 19) and women taking charge (April 26).

"They're all really good films, some classics and some you haven't seen a bunch of times," says Cher, who lists Bette Davis and Ingrid Bergman among her favorite actresses. "I was a huge fan of Katharine Hepburn, but not her earliest films because I thought she over-acted. I started loving her around The Philadelphia Story."

Cher's passion for Hollywood's golden era started early.

"I've been madly in love with old movies forever," says Cher, 66. "My mother started me watching them and I was hooked by the time I was 10. People will ask me, 'How do you relate to something that old?' I say, a diamond's old but it's still nice to have on your finger."

Another infatuation led Cher to the project. She adores co-host Osborne and says the two never stop yammering about their shared movie fixation on and off camera during TCM tapings.